A FORMER New Labour high-flier has been found guilty of abducting a 13-year-old boy he groomed on the internet.

Peter Tuffley, 28, who had worked as an assistant to Labour Party chairman Hazel Blears, the MP for Salford, took the boy to stay overnight at his flat in Liverpool after they met through an internet chatroom and dating website, Bolton Crown Court heard.

He denied the boy's claim they kissed and cuddled in his bed and the jury cleared him of sexual activity with a child.

But he was convicted of sexual grooming on the internet and child abduction.

Tuffley, now of East Sussex, gulped and puffed his cheeks out as the guilty verdicts were delivered by the jury forewoman. He faces up to 10 years in jail.

And he may also be prosecuted for a further charge of possessing child porn on his home computer.

Tuffley was working as a Labour Party organiser in the north west when he met the youngster, known only as boy A, the court heard.

Consent

Tuffley called the boy, "cute" and "babe" in emails and text messages before he took the youngster to stay overnight at his flat in Liverpool on March 12 last year.

The youngster's frantic parents had called police after he failed to return home. Tuffley was arrested the next day - telling officers he thought the boy was over 16.

When police checked Tuffley's computer they found an exchange of messages between the two, which the prosecution alleged showed Tuffley must have known he was under 16 - legally too young to consent to any sexual activity.

The boy first contacted Tuffley, who is openly gay, on March 4 last year, through the Faceparty website.

Both had profiles and photos of themselves on the website and the boy said he "fancied" the older man. The youngster, then aged 13, claimed on the website to be 18 and gay. But he later told police he had admitted to Tuffley he was still at school but was aged 15, not 13.

Tuffley said he believed the boy was 18, as he claimed to be on the website profile.

But Geoff Whelan, prosecuting, told the court there was "ample evidence" to show Tuffley knew the boy was not 16 and therefore not old enough to consent to sexual activity.

Tuffley was bailed until December 1 for sentence at Bolton Crown Court.

After the verdict, the father of the boy - who cannot be identified for legal reasons - said he hoped Tuffley would get a long jail sentence.